The present invention relates to envelopes and more particularly to an easily opened, highly secure envelope.
A substantial amount of business of all kinds is transacted by means of national or international postal systems. For example, mail-order merchandisers not only use the mails to ship ordered products but also to receive payments from purchasers of those products. Similarly, consumers use the mails extensively when they pay for insurance policy premiums, credit card purchases, utility bills, bank loans, etc.
The volume of mail received on a daily basis by firms engaged in businesses such as those identified above can be overwhelming. Notwithstanding this, firms try to stay current on opening incoming mail both to avoid unmanageable backlogs of mail and to optimize their cash flow where the envelopes contain checks or money orders.
The most rudimentary solution to the problem of handling incoming mail is to either hire additional people for the express purpose of manually opening incoming mail or to assign existing employees the part time task of manually opening mail at peak receiving times. The drawback to this approach is that the recipient incurs increased labor costs which must be passed on to the consumer. Also, employees assigned the part time task of opening incoming mail may neglect other equally critical duties.
To speed up the opening of incoming mail, a number of mail-slitting machines have been developed and marketed. While the use of such machines can reduce labor costs, the cost of acquiring and maintaining such machines can be significant. Also, such machines can damage the contents of envelopes being opened, particularly where the machine encounters a staple or paper clip within the envelope.
Large volume mail users have also attempted to facilitate handling of incoming mail by providing easy opening envelopes in which customers might return payments and the like. One well known type of easy opening envelope has a line of perforations parallel to one end so that a recipient can simply tear off the end of the envelope in order to remove the contents.
The problem with known types of easy opening envelopes is that they sometimes open too easily, causing the contents of the envelope to be spilled in transit as a result of rough handling. Some consumers, being aware of this problem, securely tape the envelopes shut before mailing to prevent accidental opening. Such an action makes it much more difficult for the recipient to open the envelope quickly and to remove the contents.